


Team Up

by Cutiefangs, Kensalyn



Series: Kelpie's Adventures [2]
Category: Overlord - Maruyama Kugane & Related Fandoms
Genre: Collab, Gameplay, Gen, Kelpie dark, Team Up, Yggdrasil - Freeform, Zoba, kensalyn, space themed dungeon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-24
Updated: 2020-11-24
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:15:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,276
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27703331
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cutiefangs/pseuds/Cutiefangs, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kensalyn/pseuds/Kensalyn
Summary: While on the hunt for a special drop, Kelpie encounters another player and potential friend.
Series: Kelpie's Adventures [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2026136
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	Team Up

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Real Life on the Seventh Floor](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17506664) by [Kensalyn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kensalyn/pseuds/Kensalyn). 



> Hello and welcome to the collab between Kensalyn and I! She inspired and encouraged me to make my story A Lady's Tail, so we thought it'd be fun to write a little one shot of how our characters became friends in Yggdrasil! Enjoy!

Kelpie sighed and rolled her shoulders in relief as her avatar loaded into the world. It had been a little bit since she had been able to log into Yggdrasil. Between the numerous labs and the thesis her professor kept pushing her to write, her time had been pretty much taken up. She found it regrettable, but dreams take time to complete and she was determined to get hers done. But it didn’t mean she didn’t feel the itch to play any moment of free time she could. It was certainly a struggle to juggle her life and her gaming.

She looked down at her avatar and smiled. Her long black and purple spotted tail was as beautiful as ever. This was part of what made Yggdrasil so worth it, she loved her naga avatar. She worked hard to get her upper body as close to her real appearance, even the glasses which she didn’t really need in game. Her corset was amazing too. Since her tail had built armor due to the scales, she had needed some kind of chest plate. The designs she found weren’t really her style but with the help of some data crystals the enchanted metal chestplate became an enchanted pinstripe corset. All in all, every time she saw her avatar she got a thrill of happiness.

Opening her menu, she looked at the quests that were currently active. Most were filler quests she didn’t care about except for the experience, but there was one she was determined to finish today. The quest Darkest Knight was a limited time dungeon crawl full of enemies called “Star Kin”. The common enemy item drops consisted of star fragments or star dust, but she was only interested in one specific drop. Cosmic Metal, a crafting item used to give an unknown effect to any material it is made into. With a drop rate of 3%, she’d already gone through the dungeon over ten times with no luck. Today was different, she had a good feeling about it. Even if it took a few times, she’d get the item today!

With a flick of her finger, the mini map flickered into the top right corner of her view. Her tail thumped happily seeing the very small amount of players around the dungeon today. Since it was a limited time dungeon many people gathered with their friends or guilds to challenge it. Whenever the people were there, she always felt self conscious. Unlike others, she had yet to find good friends. Plus she did not like the idea of joining a guild, so she had even little chance to meet people. She liked being a solo player, but being the only one without a party could make her feel a little envy and sadness.

She shook her head to clear her thoughts and clenched her hands in determination.

“You got this! Today is your day, I can feel it!” Punching her fist into the hair, she slithered her way to the dungeon entrance.

Like always the moment she stepped in, the world became shrouded in darkness. The only bits of light shining from the walls like stars in the night sky. It was breathtakingly beautiful and could almost make one forget they were in a dangerous dungeon. She once tried to take a piece with her to give to her npc, not that he would react at all, but the walls were resistant to all attacks. The sounds of feet thumping on the floor and faint twinkling alerted her to the incoming horde of enemies. Like instinct, she shifted her hands up and a bow materialized in them. A deep breath and she turned around drawing the string, allowing a pitch black arrow to coalesce. 

Then she faltered a moment, the enemies weren’t swarming to her, but a blue-skinned four-armed djinn running away. Tilting her head in confusion, she stared intently at the djinn. She had two daggers in hand but with the way she kept casting spirit bolt at the enemies, Kelpie wondered if the djinn had a debuff cast onto her or if the Star Kins elements were one of her weaknesses. There was also the possibility that she was running away to regain health. The Star Kin were not very hard to kill, but they had high damage and could easily kill someone if they got cornered. There were no other players around her, so she assumed that the djinn was a solo player. 

It was frowned upon in Yggdrasil to intervene in other’s battles without prior permission, but contrary to Kelpie’s karma rating, she couldn’t help but feel the urge to help the djinn. If the player got mad, she would give some gold to appease her. 

She pulled the golden drawstring tight and loosed an arrow, striking the leader of the horde in the eye and staggering. She grinned and screamed “Strike!” The horde stopped and turned to target Kelpie, but with that momentary pause, she quickly shot several more arrows. Most times to change aggro, a tank needed to use the skill taunt, but because she wasn’t in a party with the djinn, just attacking the enemies was enough.

Kelpie had a level in the upper 70s so the beginning Star Kin enemies were not difficult to kill. They only needed two hits from her bow to die. She could just shoot them again, but feeling the need to be flashy, she decided to finish it in close combat. Darting towards the horde, she spun her body and slashed the enemies horizontally with the curved spikes on the front of her bow. The words “critical hit” appeared in golden text as the enemies screamed and crumbled into stardust. Within the pile of one, Kelpie could see the shiny bright red color of a healing potion. She reached in and grabbed it.

Shaking her hands rid of the dust, she turned and threw the healing potion to the djinn standing there watching her intently. Feeling a little embarrassed, she ducked her head and rubbed the back of her head shyly.

“Ah first let me say sorry for interrupting without asking. It uh seemed you could use a little help and I didn’t want to leave you to die if you did. You can have all the drops.”

Her tail twisted around itself in nervousness..

“No no, there’s no need to apologize, really! Thank you so much for helping me out! I, uh, should’ve thought to bring my Ring of Infiltration, I guess.” 

She gave a sort of embarrassed half-laugh from behind the blue mask she wore. 

“Would you rather have it? I’ve got a few Soul Soups packed for health already.” 

She almost tossed the potion back, but paused, fiddling with the bottle. Then she walked over and held it out. Kelpie shook her head silently and gestured with her hand for the djinn to just keep it. With a grateful smile the djinn did, dropping it into her inventory.

“My name’s Zoba. I’m, uh, actually out here to farm some materials. And i-if you’re here to do the same… maybe we could team up?” 

Before Kelpie could react, all four hands shot up, as though the djinn were already embarrassed by her own forwardness. 

“Y’know—just like, a temporary party, I’m already in a guild, but—just so the offer’s open! Just, I’m grateful, wanted to offer.”

“Oh, ah you’re welcome. I’m Kelpie, I’m a solo player, no guild affiliation. Heh. Um I’ll have to pass on the team up, I'm really only here for the final drop, so I don’t have time to pick up a lot of drops in case it doesn’t appear and I need to do it again. If it's your first time in the dungeon, the Star Kin have a heavy advantage in close combat, but long range, they’re incredibly easy to kill.”

The blue mask was nodding up and down, two hands clasped behind the girl’s back while the other two tried to act nonchalant at her sides. A smiling emoticon with a sweat drop appeared, and she turned to look at the little piles of stardust. 

“Thanks, I’ll remember that! I haven’t been here for this event before... I didn’t realize it was going on. There sure is a high spawn rate for these enemies, it seems...” 

She jumped, whipping the mask back to face Kelpie. 

“Oh! Um, but, yeah, no, that’s fine, I get it! I didn’t mean to pressure you into a party or anything, sorry; everyone’s got their own playstyle, and that’s part of what makes the game fun, right? Honestly, for me, it was fun just to meet you! Thank you again for the assist. And, uh—for taking time to chat, when you’re on a time crunch, and—yknow what, I’m just gonna—yeah I’m gonna... stop talking and head on this direction and let you do your thing! And uh... yeah!” 

She made a laugh that somehow echoed the awkward emoticon just vanishing over her head. 

“Yup thank you good luck then bye!!”

The djinn rushed away too quickly for Kelpie to respond. She let the hand she had extended to stop Zoba drop down with a heavy sigh. 

“...Way to go, Kelpie. You could have made a friend if you weren’t so blunt. Ugh!”

This was one of the reasons she didn't get along well with other players. She always spoke what she thought and never cared to deal with false pleasantries. If she said something, she 100% meant it. If she was asked a question, she'd answer it completely whether or not the person actually wanted to know. A lot of the players she met found this to be annoying and refused to party with her. Truthfully though even if she regretted it in times like this, she didn't care to change it. She liked being the way she was.

Puffing out another sigh, she slithered farther into the dungeon. She kept her vigilance as she passed through each level of the dungeon. She was truthful when she said the Star Kin were weak to long range, but it wasn't always the easiest to avoid them. Each Star Kin was a close range class, but that meant each one could have a different skill set. She remembered one of her first runs when there was a group of ninja Star Kins who cornered her and managed to kill her before she could even notice they were there.

She tilted her head and listened closely. A barely audible rustle came from a divot in the wall. She slid a small vial of ash from her inventory and tied it to the front of her arrow. Aiming it, she shot the arrow straight through the opening. She heard the bottle shattering, flames igniting, and the screams of a group of Star Kins. 

Kelpie's mouth twitched up into a smirk. She loved this moment every time she came back to the dungeon. Revenge for her lost hard won levels. Phoenix dust was an expensive item to use on them but the satisfaction of vengeance was well worth the trouble.

She continued onward with nothing of interest happening. She had gone through the dungeon many times that she knew all the hiding spots and spawning points there were. In no time she was at the boss's entrance. A large dark oak wood double door engraved with color changing constellations. Based on the time of day, the constellations would be in different locations on the door.

A booming crash echoed out as she heard the guttural screams of the enraged boss. The door squeaked ever so slightly as she peeked inside. The djinn Zoba was attempting to fight the boss. It was a giant in pitch black full plate armor with galaxies, stars, and black holes swirling around. In one hand, it had a thick spiked shield as black as its armor. In the other was a large blindingly bright one handed sword. Kelpie wondered how the djinn had gotten there before her, but remembered that one of the possible spawning traps was an instant teleport to the boss room. She’d only found it once and was surprised that Zoba had managed to stumble into it. 

________

Ohhh shoot oh shoot oh shoot ohshootohshoot— 

How had she gotten herself into this mess?? All she’d needed was a few Bailey Beads to finish a project, just three or four! And suddenly, instead of mining in a quiet corner of the cave, she looked up to see… 

A boss.

She dissipated into mist as the weapon fell where she’d stood, ‘eep’ lost in her density change. 

Where the heck had this gigantic knight even come from?!? How had she ended up in this room?!? 

Dark oozed into the aura surrounding the armor-clad giant, and as it growled in frustration, trying to wrench it’s sword from the cave floor, an energy shot down it’s arm. Zoba’s ‘eep’ of surprise was still inaudible as the sword sparked with a blaze akin to a sun flare, and she darted her incorporeal form to the side. 

Acting on adrenaline more than anything, her knives found their way into her reforming hands, swatting a blow at her attacker. Not that it would do any real damage, but if she was lucky, it would cause a recoil! That would give her time to retreat, to come up with an idea as to how in the heck she was gonna fight this boss alone, and— 

No such luck.

Her natural elemental boosts were completely ignored, little number ones popping into existence over her attacks to confirm the failure. And then she realized… She had reformed on the inner side of her enemy’s arm, not beyond it. 

She’d dodged deeper into it’s attack box. 

Rookie mistake. 

Well, dang it. Nishikienrai was gonna tease her so bad for this death. 

Something smacked her in the face, and the recoil of the effect ‘Stun’ had her foggy almost instantly. Dang it!! Her arms wouldn’t respond, she couldn’t focus her vision—if she lost the levels this death would take, what would she do about the raid in a few days? She’d promised she could make it, and the guild was counting on her skills to pull off their plan— 

The only thing she could clearly make out was a shake in the ground. Rhythmic. Growing closer. Footsteps. This boss was going to take it’s sweet time powering up a swing, wasn’t it? She was about to be destroyed in a two-hit K.O. This… This was turning out to be a day full of embarrassments, wasn’t it?

Just as she was trying to decide which guildmate would tease her more for dying like such a noob, Nishikienrai or Takemikazuchi, a much smaller sound rang out than the death-bringing shear she had expected, followed closely by a roar of anger, then— 

KSHHINCK 

Something huge landed to her left, bouncing against the stone ground. Metal? She tried to focus on the huge shining object she’d jumped away from. Was that the sword?… Why did the boss drop it’s— 

There was another streak of movement, coming in fast, but before Zoba could worry too much about yet another enemy on the field she’d need to escape, her arm was grabbed, and she was being lifted to her feet. The ‘Stun’ effect began to clear, it’s penalty halved by aid of the assist. 

As her vision came into focus, she noticed a short haircut. The back of a pinstripe corset. A long black and purple tail.

It was the Naga player from earlier. Kelpie. 

She could have kissed the snake. 

No time for that though; as images of smug emoticons over teasing guildmates vanished from her mind, she went into Teammate Mode. If she was gonna be saved a second time by the same friendly stranger, she sure as heck wasn’t gonna let the Naga fight alone. 

Her screen blinked blue in the corner, and a new health bar appeared for her party member. Wow, Kelpie had accepted the invitation almost as soon as Zoba had sent it!! 

Good. Outside the game, on her real face, Zoba grinned. Things had looked desperate before. But now? 

Now, things were gonna get interesting. 

Kelpie shifted her grip on the bow in her hand, having situated herself between Zoba and the tall enemy knight. "If you still have that health potion, drink it. I'll cover you as you heal,” she said, then she was gone, tail sashaying along the ground as she zipped to sink yet another arrow into her target. 

Oh. Right. Health. Zoba looked at the glowing circles of the spell she was already casting, then nervously to the edge of her vision, the green nearly half depleted from the little bar below her name. Well… health potion would have to wait!

Two more seconds, and she sent her spell flying. Distracted by the barrage of Kelpie’s arrows, the boss wasn’t even able to angle it’s shield before the magic struck. Trickster’s Trade had hit it’s mark. Zoba let out a little victory chirp and jumped into the air, taking advantage of the momentum to dematerialize her legs and float up, farther from the boss’s range. 

“Defense is gone; Specials are up but will be negated in a second!” Zoba was using two arms to yank the cork from the health potion, while the other two were already cooking up her next spell: Wishful Thinking. “The only guard it’s got against full damage for the next thirty seconds is it’s shield!”

Kelpie sprang into action, but Zoba was finished with Wishful Thinking as well as the potion, and was fully focused on her next spell. New rings circled around her hands, appeared under her floating form, and within a few moments, the magic was ready.

She flung it toward her target. Kelpie.

_______

The spell hit Kelpie and exploded in a puff of gold, which swirled in a loop down to her hip, forming a golden oil lamp. It was faint enough that Kelpie wondered if it was a physical object or not. Short beeps rang out, in the corner of her vision there were the status effects glowing gold: Speed +36%, Dexterity +36%, Strength +24%, Courage. 

Dang, the Djinn was powerful. She had never seen a spell before capable of all these effects with such high percentages. Confident in her chances of winning, she grinned excitedly. It wouldn’t show on her avatar but she pictured the boss losing nerve at the maliciousness leaking from it. 

Squaring her shoulders, she cast bloody venom, a spell that would give any attack poison damage while also draining her health a small amount with every hit. It was a new spell she had recently got when she reached the class “Venom Lord”. It wasn’t very powerful yet but with their increased chance of victory, she wasn’t gonna stop herself from trying it out.

The boss stood its ground and stared at the two players. It’s health bar was down by a sixth and more would soon be gone. It’s AI was advanced, so Kelpie knew it understood the danger it was in. If given enough time, she knew it would realize it should be targeting Zoba, but she wasn’t gonna give it that. Her arrow shot faster than ever before, whistling violently as it sliced through the air. It impaled clean through the corner of the boss’s shoulder, where the armor was weakest. A wet gurgle escaped the boss as it staggered clutching that shoulder. Sickly green 5s wafted out of the wound every second, indicating the poison damage was active.

Kelpie whistled in appreciation. She could get addicted to the power of the spell combos. 

The boss flailed its shield around like it was trying to attack invisible enemies all around it. Ah, her posion’s 1% chance of delirium must have activated. This day was getting luckier and luckier. The status effect would only be active for 30 seconds so she would use her time wisely. She let loose several arrows in quick succession, getting its health down to a half. 

An animation triggered the second stage. The sword returned to its hand and the helmet spasmed. The heavy clanks of metal on metal echoed as it’s helmet burst apart into heavy shrapnel. Its eyes were revealed to be large orange suns that flared. The hail of molten metal was too quick for either players to avoid and a decent chunk of their health was shaved away. The pitch black of its shield dissolved into a shower of ash, revealing the same blindingly bright white of the sword. 

The boss glared at Kelpie before letting loose a roar that shook the entire cavern. The top of the cavern shivered, then began to fall apart. Large sections of stone slammed into the wall, causing Kelpie to stumble. Above them now was a spiralling galaxy purple and gold galaxy. It flashed every so often like the beating of a heart.

This was where they both needed to be extremely cautious. With their current health, a single hit from it would be an instant death, but still Kelpie was not worried. She had gone through this several times before and this time she even had status effects.

The boss lifted its sword and it shot a white beam straight up into the galaxy.

She twisted her head towards Zoba, yelling, “Watch out for the meteors!”

Immediately, flaming blood red meteors crashed down from above. Zoba skillfully weaved between the falling rocks, remaining unscathed.

Kelpie set her sight on one meteor. It was slower than the others and fell directly in front of the boss. She shot her arrow and noticed one meteor heading straight for her and narrowly avoided it by spinning to the side. She, however, was not far enough from the resulting blast. The flames burned and dropped her health to a fourth, but she was still not worried. Her arrow slammed right into the meteor, causing it to divert straight into the boss’ face. It’s health immediately dropped to ⅜.

The resulting scream reverberated in both player’s ears, causing a small decrease of their own health. They were so close to beating it!

The boss wiped the flaming stone from its eyes and slashed its sword in such a way that both Zoba and Kelpie would be hit. Kelpie shot another arrow, hitting the blade just enough that it would just pass over Zoba. In doing so though, she had no way to dodge herself. She lifted her bow and tensed, prepared to try to parry the sword. 

“Spirit bolt!”

A smaller than expected impact hit her on the head and due to concentrating all her strength on her bow, she was knocked to the ground. 2 damage appeared in the air she had occupied just as the sword sliced through it. The boss stumbled and fell to the ground.

She glanced over to the djinn and saw Zoba’s arms stretched out. Nice, that was a smart move! Kelpie gave a thumbs-up and yelled out to her.

“I’m gonna try to end this!”

Setting her aim at the boss’s head, she drew the bowstring back and concentrated. The inky black arrow swirled and swelled to two, three times its size. Zoba shouted “Charged!” The gold oil lamp was already fading as Action +20% appeared next to Kelpie’s other status effects. The arrow was set loose and Kelpie reeled back from the recoil. The arrow shot even faster before, moving side to side like a slithering snake. It slammed deep into the boss’ head, causing it to fly off its body. The health bar dropped to zero and was replaced with the word “Victory”. The body and head exploded into black ash. There were two soft plinks as the drop items landed on the floor.

There in all its glory was the rare Cosmic Metal she longed for. Next to it was the common item “Solar Flare”, an orange and red swirling orb. It gave the player who equipped it flame resistance and fire damage. It could also not be equipped with any cold type items.

Kelpie gingerly picked up the Cosmic Metal. The temptation to pocket it and run was very high, but she couldn’t do that to the nice djinn. She turned to face Zoba.

“Would you let me keep this? I know it's a very valuable item, but if you let me have it. You can have the Solar Flare and if you want i’ll help you farm this dungeon and show you all the secrets I found.”

Zoba came back to earth, feet forming and prancing forward as she came to peek at the two drops. “Yeah, of course! You said you were after an item from the boss, after all. And, well, I personally wouldn’t use it, but someone in the guild might have a use for a Solar Flare; I’ll add it to the treasury, thank you!” She folded her hands behind her, shifting her weight to one foot. “Uh, if you happen to know a good spot to pick up some Bailey Beads during this event? That’s what I came here for! And, well… it would be fun to stay teamed up a bit longer. You’re pretty good at this teammate stuff, you know!”

Kelpie sent a blushing and smiling emoji.

"Ah thank you. Teaming up with you is fun for me too! There's a few treasure rooms where the Bailey Beads spawn. I'll take you to them now!"

She waved for Zoba to follow her and together they walked through the boss door.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed!


End file.
